On our final birding day in Ecuador we saw - wait for it - five species of antpittas - all at the private birding refuge
Paz de las Aves. The efforts of one man and his brother to establish this refuge for birders and photographers is world-wide famous, and a can't miss experience for those visiting this part of Ecuador. I recommend visiting their website for an armchair visit to
Paz de las Aves.
We arrived at Paz de las Aves at the crack of dawn to see another highly desired bird, Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruvianus). It was raining lightly and approximately 20 birders were stuffed under the roof of a blind to first listen to the raucous calling of the male cock. As the light improved, it became possible to see these birds perched, bobbing and flying around their breeding area. (I don't think lek is the correct word here because they were in the trees, not on the ground.)
Cock-of-the-Rock - crazy looking and sounding bird.
Our first antpitta was Giant Antipitta (
Grallaria gigantea). We saw this beautiful bird so well as it walked along the branch to the end where it ate the worms placed at the tip to lure it out. I must have got 15-20 photos
The next: Yellow-breasted (G. flavotincta)
Next up: Ochre-breasted (G. flavirostris). Here there were two birds and they also stayed for a long-viewing.
Next: Chestnut-crowned (G. ruficapilla). We saw this bird along a trail earlier on the trip, but not so well as this.
For our fifth antpitta we saw the
Moustached Antpitta (G. alleni). The Moustached was a real scramble as we were hustled along the muddy trail. I had a one-click chance for a photo and missed it. Truth be told, because I opted to use my split second for a photo, I essentially missed seeing the bird. Seeing Luke Seitz's photograph of Moustached Antpitta on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Neotropical Birds website made me wonder if this
is the Paz de las Aves bird - or at least made me think he took his photo at the refuge. Addendum made 07/21/18: Photo has been pulled from the above-linked website.
After elbowing under the Cock-of-the-Rock blind, we were hustled along the muddy trails to see a family of Dark-back Wood Quail (
Odontophorus melanonotus).
Because a lot of the birders present on this morning preferred to stay behind in the Cock-of-the-Rock blind, this was possibly the best viewing we enjoyed.
Our Paz del las Aves day was very crowded - approximately 25-30 birders raced along muddy and slick trails to see these birds. On the one hand it was exciting. On the other, it seemed odd and unpleasant.
